Language was clear

Record columnist Luisa D’Amato is wrong on almost every point. The central issue all along has been the universities’ alleged sacrifice of their academic integrity, not about threats to academic freedom.

Nor is this a “tempest in a teapot.” The Canadian Association of University Teachers rarely votes to start the censure process — only doing so when there is overwhelming consensus among our member associations representing academic staff at 124 universities and colleges across Canada.

Our discontinuance of censure proceedings was not because of “a second memo.” It was because the two universities and the donor’s organization signed a legal document making explicit for the first time that the two universities had exclusive control of all academic matters in relation to the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA).

The language the three parties signed could not have been clearer: “None of CIGI (the Centre for International Governance Innovation), BSIA, the BSIA board and the director has authority over any academic matter whatsoever in connection with BSIA academic programs.”

The school’s director, chosen by the board on which CIGI sits, “has no role whatsoever in any academic matter related to any program offered by either university, including no decisive role in appointment of faculty and chairs and selection of students.” As well, the board’s budgetary role is specifically acknowledged as only “over its (BSIA’s) non-academic budget and operations.”

Such unambiguous statements protecting the academic integrity of the two universities were absent from previous documents. It is disappointing that this eluded D’Amato.